It is well known to provide contactless payment cards in the standard ID-1 geometry (substantially 85.6×54 mm in planar extent). Such cards resemble conventional credit and debit cards in size and shape, and allow account holders to access debit or credit card accounts to pay for transactions by wireless communication between the contactless payment cards and proximity readers included in point of sale (POS) terminals.
Because of the wireless communication capability of these cards, it is feasible to enhance their convenience by shrinking their size, to perhaps one-half or one-third or less of the planar extent of the standard ID-1 geometry. In this reduced size, a contactless payment card may be carried, for example, as a fob on a key ring.
According to certain proposals, it has been suggested that small contactless payment cards be integrated with portable handheld electronic devices such as mobile telephones. In one such proposal, the housing of a mobile telephone is configured to include one or more slots shaped and sized to receive small contactless payment cards. However, this approach requires coordination and cooperation with manufacturers of mobile telephones and/or with mobile telephone network operators. In practice, it may be difficult to achieve such coordination and cooperation. Also, if a slot or slots of a certain size are included in the mobile telephone housing, small contactless cards of other sizes would not be compatible with the mobile telephone. Still further, there may be significant added cost in modifying the mobile telephone design to accommodate contactless card slots.
In another prior art proposal, an adhesive layer is added to the rear of a contactless payment card, which may take the form of a somewhat flexible self-adhesive label. The card/label can then be adhered to the rear surface of a mobile telephone. One disadvantage with this approach may arise if the account holder wishes to replace the mobile telephone after attaching the payment card/label thereto. It may be difficult to remove the card/label from the mobile telephone housing, and it may be impossible or impractical to attach the card/label to the cardholder's new mobile telephone. Also, if the account holder desires to change payment cards, the problem of removing the card/label from the mobile telephone housing again arises, and such removal may leave an adhesive residue on the mobile telephone housing or otherwise mar the finish of the mobile telephone housing. Still another disadvantage may arise if the account holder wishes to temporarily lend his/her mobile telephone to another individual, but does not wish to entrust his/her payment card to the individual.
Another possible disadvantage of the latter approach is that the layer of adhesive material on the card/label and/or the flexibility of the card/label may make it difficult to perform personalization processing on the card/label with conventional personalization equipment. Consequently, the cost of personalizing the card/label may be increased.
The present inventor, in a prior application filed Jul. 27, 2007 and published as U.S. Published Application No. 2009/0026277 (“the '277 publication”), disclosed a holder for a contactless identification card. The holder is in the form of a sticker that may be adhered to a portable electronic device. The holder may include a slot or pouch in which the contactless identification card may be inserted to removably secure the contactless identification card to the electronic device. The '277 publication is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is incorporated herein by reference.
In addition, the present inventor, in another prior application filed on Jan. 20, 2009 and published as U.S. Published Application No. 2010/0182764 (“the '764 publication), disclosed a carrying case for a portable device, where the case includes a slot in which a small contactless ID card may be inserted to secure the card to the portable device. The '764 publication is assigned to the assignee of the present application and is also incorporated herein by reference.
The inventor recognized that it would be desirable to provide further techniques and assemblies for securing contactless identification cards to electronic devices that are low cost, simple to use, and more robust than prior techniques.